Dual conductor electrical cable suitable for light duty electrical use, commonly referred to as "zip" wire, is in use in many applications. A depiction of this wire, or cable, design is shown in prior art FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 details a cross section of a length of zip wire. Having reference to that figure, zip wire 1, is formed of a mass of flexible, electrically insulating material 3, such as vinyl, rubber, or any of a variety of monomeric or polymeric isomers. Commonly formed by extrusion, casting, melt-pulling, or the like, zip wire 1 typically contains a plurality, usually two, wires 2' and 2". Zip wire 1 typically takes the form in cross section of a rounded rectangle having a pair of medially disposed and opposed notches 4 and 4'. To affect the independent attachment, whether it be electrical, mechanical, or a combination thereof, the separation of zip wire 1 along the axis defined between notches 4 and 4' results in the formation of two separate insulated wires, 1' and 1".
While the previously discussed zip wire configuration may be utile for its intended electrical and mechanical purposes, its external form renders it less that optimal in some applications, and for some marketing and packaging purposes. The spooling of bulk amounts of zip wire onto bulk spools or drums presents no particular difficulty. Such spooling typically takes the form of helically winding the wire about the shank of the drum or spool to form a complete layer thereby. On the completion of the formation of a first single layer winding continues, again helically but in the opposite direction, to form a second single layer overlaying the first layer, and so forth. While this method of storage is satisfactory for many bulk applications, it is unsuitable for a use where a given wire, hereafter referred to as a cable, is formed into an assembly having one or more electrical connectors electrically and mechanically assembled to the cable.
Where such an assembly is formed, for instance a speaker cable assembly, a preferred method for compactly storing the cable is as a "pancake". These "pancakes" typically comprise a length of cable, terminated at either end, and are wound in an expanding helix such that the resultant coil is one cable's width wide. An example of this pancake coil, illustrating the features of the present invention, is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. This single layer helix, or pancake, may then be placed for marketing purposes inside a variety of display packages, for instance clear plastic blister packs having a pasteboard back, for ultimate sale to the retail customer.
Unfortunately, the external form of zip wire is ill-suited to retaining the resultant pancake coil in its coiled form neatly, attractively, and compactly for these types of marketing and display purposes.
New Monster Cables.RTM. is manufactured by Monster Cable.RTM. of South San Francisco, Calif. This high performance two-conductor speaker cable is used by audiophiles to improve and enhance the performance of their audio systems by transmitting from the amplifiers thereof to the speakers thereof an exceptionally clear audio signal with minimal signal loss. Monster Cable.RTM. defines several improvements over the previously discussed zip wire including, but not necessarily limited to, Time Correct.RTM. windings, Magnetic Flux Tube.RTM. construction, and specialized dielectric insulation. These improvements, as well as increases in wire size over zip wire, serve to reduce signal loss while maintaining exceptional fidelity of transmission of the audio signal to a degree unattainable with common electrical zip wire. While the interior form of New Monster Cable.RTM. presents these advantages over zip wire, its external form is somewhat similar to that of zip wire, although generally of somewhat larger scale.
New Monster Cable.RTM. is often marketed as a complete cable assembly, terminated with Monster Cable's.RTM. proprietary connectors, as previously discussed. Because the insulating, or dielectric, material which insulates the several wires of the cable tends to have a low coefficient of friction, maintaining the pancake assembly cables in its coiled configuration between the time such pancakes are formed, and the time they are placed into the display packages, is problematic. The cable layers tend to slip axially with respect to one another, thereby destroying the neat appearance required of the pancake configuration. Maintaining the pancake configuration with wire or cable of this type requires inordinate amounts of effort and time to effect the neat packaging thereof.
What is needed then is a configuration for insulated wires and cables, including multi-wire insulated cables, which presents the advantages inherent in the design of Monster Cable.RTM., while obviating the disadvantages previously discussed in forming neat pancakes of cable, which disadvantages are caused by zip wire's external configuration.